Many liquid products are dispensed from containers through an open end of the container or through a dispensing system that forms part of the closure for a container. For instance, liquid laundry products are commonly packaged in a container having a spout fitment fitted thereto and a closure that engages with the spout fitment and or container. The closure often has a secondary purpose to function as a measuring cup and is provided with dosing indicia on the interior or exterior of the closure, the indicia having the form of lines or bars marked on the interior wall of the closure that correspond with particular volumes of liquid product that are desirable to use depending on the size of the load of laundry or other washing conditions.
Sometimes it can take some effort for the consumer to precisely dispense the desired amount of liquid laundry product into the dosing cup. If the consumer under-doses the liquid laundry product, he or she may be dissatisfied with the performance of the liquid laundry product because he or she failed to use an effective amount of the product. If the consumer overdoses the liquid laundry product, the consumer may be dissatisfied with the number of loads of laundry he or she can do with a single container of liquid laundry product.
There are a variety of devices that have a purpose of measuring the quantity of liquid product dispensed from a container as the container dispenses the liquid. Measuring the quantity of liquid product dispensed when pouring a liquid from a container is an exceptionally challenging task because the flow rate from container may not be constant, air entering the container to replace the liquid product dispensed may result in irregular liquid flow from the container, and the dynamics of liquid product flow through constrictions and multiple pathways out of the container is complicated.
With these limitations in mind, there is a continued unaddressed need for apparatuses and process for dispensing a measured quantity of liquid product.